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User blog:BeastMan14/Review: "Hellboy" Is A Generic, Gory Slog That's Less than The Sum of It's Parts
It's been 11 years since the release of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and many of us have largely come to terms with the fact that Guillermo Del Toro's take on the character of Hellboy is gone, never to return. So many fans of that film were hesitant when a reboot of the franchise was announced, though our fears were largely assuaged by the announcement of Neil Marshall, director of horror hits like The Descent and Dog Soldiers, as director and the casting of David Harbour from Stranger Things would be taking over as Hellboy. "Maybe," we thought, "They just might be able to make it work." Unfortunately, they couldn't. Despite a strong cast and an R-rating that could've let them delve into the horror elements of the mythos, Hellboy is a lackluster effort and one of the weakest comic book films in years. The Cast One aspect this film does get right is it's assembly of a talented cast, even if they're largely squandered. David Harbour is left with the difficult task of playing the character of Hellboy after Ron Perlman's brilliant turn, and he mostly sells it, working through the makeup to play an angstier, more conflicted take on him. As his closest friend Alice Monaghan, Sasha Lane is a charming counter to Harbour, and she gives the film a much-needed sense of emotion and warmth that it sorely lacks, while Daniel Dae-Kim nails his turn as Ben Daimo, a hardass M11 agent who effectively becomes Hellboy's handler during the mission. Together, the trio have a chemistry that feels earned despite a lack of overall material for them to work with. As Hellboy's adoptive father and apparent head of the BPRD, Ian McShane, a wonderful character actor, is unfortunately given little to work with. He's certainly chewing it up, but he lacks the most vital aspect of the character: a paternal warmth and scholarly charm that was pulled off so perfectly by John Hurt in the first Hellboy, and it reflects in his chemistry with Harbour. The two never really click as a father-son duo because we never get the sense that they really like each other, and it makes a lot of the film's emotional development fall flat. Perhaps the most squandered cast member is Milla Jovovich, who is certainly...there as Nimue the Blood Queen. She's not terrible by any stretch, but she never really gets a chance to push the envelope either, mostly just doing ominous speeches on big CGI backgrounds. Oddly, the film's true MVP might be Thomas Haden Church, who cameos briefly as pulp hero Lobster Johnson. Much like in Spider-Man 3, Church understands exactly what kind of movie he's in, and he gives a wildly entertaining, deathly serious turn as a nazi-punching, monologue-loving vigilante. If anything else really worked here, the cast of Hellboy would probably save the film, but even they can't work with a thin script that largely reduces them to two-dimensional cut-outs. Score: 3 out of 5 The Story Co-written (supposedly) by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and 2 Guns screenwriter Andrew Cosby, Hellboy chooses to forgo the elements of science fiction and drama from Del Toro's series in favor of a darker, more violent take that focuses more on horror and comedy. To it's credit, the small elements of fantasy and world-building that we get are fascinating, as we get to peek at the idea of there being a much larger, stranger world of pulp heroes, mythical giants, and shapeshifters. Unfortunately, the actual storytelling leaves much to be desired. What horror elements the film has are often undercut by the comedy beats, which don't work because, with the exception of a few well-timed quips, almost none of the film's jokes land, nor do any of it's emotional moments. The father-son dynamic of Hellboy and Bruttenholm (which should be the heart of the film) is largely underdeveloped, while Hellboy's ongoing crisis over hunting down his own kind to save a world that fears him comes off more as him angsting like a mopey teenager than a true existential conflict. (The full brunt of it seems to come from his own allies being kind of rude to him, which pales when you compare it to Hellboy II, where Hellboy is genuinely treated with fear and suspicion by people he's actively protecting.) This wouldn't matter as much if the central conflict was interesting, but it isn't. Nimue's plot is a paint by numbers "conquer the world with my CGI horde" quest, and her motivations of protecting her kind are ill-defined, if mildly interesting when put up against Hellboy, whose struggling with a similar crisis. Despite a strong start, Hellboy is saddled with a story that never really figures out what it's going for, creating an immensely frustrating viewing experience that feels arduous despite only being 1 hour and 45 minutes. Score: 1.5 out of 5 The Direction Hellboy is directed by Neil Marshall, a talented director behind not just his aforementioned horror hits, but also two of the best episodes of Game of Thrones: "Blackwater" and "The Watchers on the Wall", meaning he should be a natural fit to nail a film like this. And perhaps if he hadn't been hamstrunged by a larger budget and studio interference, he would've been. What little horror Hellboy has is handled with skill (a sequence where the BPRD stumbles upon a massacre of a secret society is immensely unnerving, while Hellboy's conversation with the Baba Yaga gave me genuine chills) while the film's action sequences (with a few exceptions) is largely clunky, hard-to-follow, and often underwhelming due to a mix of poor CGI and the baffling decision to set a good chunk of it in daylight, which makes much of it look underwhelming. The entire film just feels deeply impersonal. I shouldn't be comparing it so much to Del Toro's series, but it feels fitting. Del Toro's Hellboy films are full of loving attention to detail, from the set design to the practical effects to the genuinely beautiful cinematography. By comparison, this just feels cheaper and lazier, from the reliance on CGI that alternates between "okay" to "2005 Resident Evil cutscene" in quality over usage of makeup (which does look good in the few instances it comes up) to the obnoxious, heavy metal score that takes a backseat to a variety of licensed music to the film's endless barrage of curse words and fake gore thrown in to force an R-rating. The set design is, admittedly, quite nice, creating fairly interesting locales that feel fleshed out, while Marshall does pull off quite a few shots that used shadow and color to great effect. It's just a shame about the rest of it. Score: 2 out of 5 Final Verdict I wanted to like Hellboy. I really, really did. But it's a film that, much like it's protagonist, suffers from a severe identity crisis. It never knows if it wants to be a Deadpool-esque dark comedy or an epic fantasy movie or a horror romp and it leads to a film that isn't really good at being any of those things. Sorry, everyone, but this one should've stayed in the pit a bit longer. Score: 43% Hypothetical Ballot Spots: *Best Male Limited Performance: Thomas Haden Church *Best Production Design *Best Make-Up and Hairstyling Category:Blog posts Category:Reviews Category:2019 Reviews